Expressing a regretful wish

Question

What is a good way to express a wish about something that won't or is unlikely to happen?

For example:

I wish I were tall enough to be allowed on that roller coaster.

I wish I could eat that much and not gain weight.

I wish I had been born 100 years ago instead.

etc.

Blavius · Answer 1 · 2016-06-06T15:58:29.677

5

A good way to do this is to use the construct Conditional + いいのに.

For example:

トラだったらいいのに
I wish I were a tiger

もっと背が高ければよかったのに
I wish I were taller

その車を買うのに十分なお金があったらいいのに
I wish I had enough money to buy that car

きれいだったらいいのに
I wish she looked pretty

It's a pretty simple construct, and any conditional form can work.

edited Jun 06 '16 at 15:58

answered Jun 06 '16 at 15:39

Blavius

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More naturally, よかったのに＞いいのに、あったら＞あれば, etc. Interestingly enough, however, you correctly used だったら. – Jun 06 '16 at 15:55
Just curious, why are those more natural than what I had before? – Blavius Jun 06 '16 at 16:25
That makes a lot of sense, thankyou :) – debrucey Jun 06 '16 at 19:52
Can you also use なら and ば for this? Is there any difference in meaning? – debrucey Jun 06 '16 at 20:17
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@Blavius いいのに is much more like "why (on earth) don't?" than counterfactual. I mean, it can be, but doesn't especially sound like. We use ればなあ/たらなあ more often if you want a non-past tense. – broccoli facemask Jun 07 '16 at 07:31
I think your examples in English are 2nd Conditional, but the Japanese translation are 3rd conditional, aren't they? – Yuuichi Tam Oct 13 '17 at 14:54
In Genki we learn this grammar point as 〜ばよかった. What does the のに add? – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Oct 13 '17 at 16:10

Expressing a regretful wish

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